James Rodríguez #10

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Not the first member of his family to play at the World Cup. His father was part of the Colombia squad at the Under-20 edition in 1985. After Wilson James and Pilar Rubio split up, it was Rodríguez’s stepfather, Juan Carlos Restrepo, who encouraged him to follow his dream. He came through at Envigado, one of the best academies in Colombia. “Juan Carlos is an obsessive; he took it upon himself to make James a star. He deserves a lot of credit,” said Silvio Sandri, Rodríguez’s first agent, in 2014, the year he won the Golden Boot at the World Cup in Brazil and sealed a blockbuster move to Real Madrid. The two-time Champions League winner is now playing in MLS at 35 after some globetrotting that took in Merseyside, Qatar, Greece, Brazil and Mexico. This will be his third World Cup.

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